loading custom styles to an SD card... HELP!

does anyone know how to copy styles from the PC onto the SD card so the KN7000 can actually read them?

I have been doing some research and it looks like there used to be an SD card manager software available on the KN7000 website which is no longer available.

does anyone know what I am supposed to do?

thanks!

Use a floppy disk and copy them about 7 or 8 at a time. The process of copying direct from PC to SD Card is complex and is similar to this explanation for transferring midi files from PC to SD Card:
Transferring MIDI Files to SD Card using a PC

It is not possible to just copy and paste MIDI files directly to an SD Card using your PC, if the files are destined to be played through the KN7000’s sound system.
The KN7000 operating system expects all MIDI files on an SD Card to be structured in a particular format and just Dragging and Dropping or Copying the files from a PC folder directly to the SD Card, does not construct the required format. Although you can ‘see’ the MIDI files on your PC, the KN7000 will not recognise them.

The KN7000 does allow MIDI files to be transferred from a Floppy Disk in its Drive, to an SD Card in the KN7000, but this can only be done one file at a time. If you have a batch of MIDI files which you wish to transfer to an SD Card, using the KN7000 system is not really a feasible solution………..

The following procedure, can be used to transfer a batch of MIDI files to an SD Card.

PROCEDURE.

1. Create a folder in the root of the SD card called IMEXPORT.
Alternatively, on the KN7000, load a MIDI file, save it to SD sound as a MIDI, then go to SD Tools\SD Sound menu and export it. This will create the IMEXPORT folder for you (you can then delete the MIDI file it contains).
 
2. Now on the PC, just copy all your midis to the IMEXPORT folder.
 
3. Insert the SD Card in the KN7000, go to SD Tools\SD Sound and import them. You can select all, or selectively select and importantly create and name the playlists you want as you go.

4. When finished, empty the IMEXPORT folder on the pc and copy the next batch.

I worked in batches of ~40 because it was manageable in the selection list, or in batches of wanted playlists. You can always re-edit/order playlists afterwards.
 
The SD sound folder can then be copied between SD cards on the pc without limitations, including all your playlists.
 
When finished empty the IMEXPORT folder since all the midis have been copied to the SD Sound folder, and the originals are just a waste of card space.


I am indebted to Alec Pagida for supplying this procedure.

Thanks for that detailed info!

Will the same method work for custom styles though as opposed to midi files?

Thanks

Nick - when you say 'Custom Styles' do you really mean 'Custom' because that is the name of a specific small group of styles will need to end up in the lower second right rhythm group, and have a seperate method of loading. If you just mean .cmp styles of which there are hundreds if not thousands - I've produced tons myself for specific songs, then to be honest there is no better way than transferring them a few at a time via a floppy disk.

Hi Roger I am referring to any style I download off the internet.

Thanks

I think Bill Norrie has explained this very well in the other topic on here but suffice it to say transferring direct from PC to SD Card is complex whereas transferring a few at a time with floppy disk is very straightforward.

Even with a Floppy drive it is going to be confusing (I think)...

SO far I have downloaded or been sent some styles but they are in folders such as:
PRIVATE > TECHNICS > KN7000 > TFLD001 > and inside there is a huge amount of files and they are all .ACT, .CMP, >LSW, PMT, SQT, TM, and then it repeats..

I tried downloading files from Bill Norries website:
http://www.willumspages.co.uk/page6.html

And all I can see is a bunch of ACT CMP LSW PMT SQT TM files, Including "Windows Installer Patch"... how am I supposed to transfer them to the KN7000 using a floppy disk?

Ok - you've got two different approaches to providing you with style sets.
The first you mention - PRIVATE > TECHNICS > KN7000 > TFLD001 > - are a whole collection of styles bundled up into a file which can only be unbundled and loaded onto an SD Card using a bit of computer software called SD Explorer for KN7000. You would also need a bit of kit called a Panasonic SD USB Reader/Writer and you insert a blank SD Card into one end and attach the other USB end to your computer. The SD Explorer software will enable you to 'RESTORE' the above mentioned .sdb bundle to the SD Card.
Willumspages which includes a good few of my song specific style files along with all of Bill's work. The components of a single style file set are a set of ACT CMP LSW PMT SQT TM files. Let's say the song was 'Lover' (my invention of a name for a song) then you would download lover.act lover.cmp lover.lsw etc to a floppy disk and take that floppy disk over to your KN7000 and load it into your keyboard. A floppy disk can hold (1.44mb) about 7 or 8 sets of those style files, and you can download them to your keyboard one set at a time, remembering to save that downloaded set to an SD Card before downloading the next one.

Nick,
First, the files on Page 6 of my website are a collection of Song Sequences and do not contain 'Custom Styles' in the terminology of the KN7000. Most of them, particularly SONGS4U Volume 3 - 17, contain COMPOSER Styles which I've created specifically for the sequenced songs.

The process of transferring the Song Files on Page 6 of my website to your KN7000 via Floppy Disk is quite straightforward... If you give me a little time, I'll write the complete procedure for you and post it here.

Incidentally, there is no "Windows Installer Patch" file among the files on my page. It is unfortunate that one of the Technics file components - the 'Performance Pad' data, uses the File Extension '.MSP' which Microsoft also uses for Windows Installer Patch files.
The '.MSP' file components have absolutely nothing to do with a Windows Installer Patch....

Watch this Space......

As Promised....

Transferring SONGS4U files to Floppy Disk for KN7000 (Windows)

1. Create a dedicated folder on your desktop - call it for example 'KNdownloads'.
2. Download a SONGS4Uxx.ZIP file and save to the KNdownloads folder.
3. Upzip the SONGS4Uxx.ZIP file to the KNdownloads folder.
4. Format a 1.44Mb floppy disk.
5. Copy all the Numbered files (01 - xx) in the KNdownloads folder to the floppy disk. There is also a text file containing the actual full names of the songs within the folder, related to the 6 character Floppy disk filename. This would not be readable on the KN7000 so there is no point in copying it
6. Place the floppy disk in the KN7000
The Song files can then be Loaded/Played one at a time on the KN7000 and then saved as required, to the SD Card.

NOTE : Some of my later SONGS4Uxx.ZIP groups of files are greater than the capacity of a 1.44Mb floppy disk, so rather than copying all the files to floppy disk in one operation after unzipping, it would be best to copy say half of them in two operations. However, do not make a split within a Song Group - each Song Group has a unique number 01 - 20.
You can check the total size of the Unzipped files by highlighting all the files (Ctrl+A) and then mouse right click and select Properties. A pop-up window will appear showing the total file size....

If you wish to download any of the Styles on my http://www.willumspages.co.uk/page7.html, the downloading instructions are included on my Tech Tips Page - Item 4.

It occurred to me that it may be useful to list the Components of a KN Song File (a TFLDxxx file) and their purpose.
The number of Components in any Song File is determined during the original Save operation.

cmp - Composer, 3 banks of 4 variations, 4 intros, 4 endings and 8 fills each. 8 Part - 2 Drum parts, Bass and Accompaniments 1 to 5.
efc - Effect Memory file with 50 DSPs.
lsw - Current Panel memory.
msp - Performance Pad files. 18 pads, 3 banks of 6 each, pads 2 track.
pmt - Panel Memory file of 13 banks of 8 memories each.
sqt - Sequencer file, 10 songs and setups.
tm - Sound Memory, 40 sounds and drum kit.
ast - Custom Style section in flash memory. 20 complete styles, each style with 20 composer patterns, 4 registrations , 6 performance pads, and any edited sounds, drums and effects.
fav - 4 Favorites Pages of individually programmable menu functions in flash memory.
hmp - The individually programmable Home Page in flash memory.
md - 3 User Midi setups in flash memory.
cst - A single Custom Style in flash memory. 20 composer patterns, 4 registrations, 6 pads etc.

EDIT : Forgot to mention in my previous post, re. copying files from Floppy disk to SD Card.... Instead of doing so one at a time by loading from floppy and then saving to SD Card, there is a facility on the KN7000 to copy all the files on a floppy disk directly to an SD Card Folder in one operation. Press SD LOAD > SD TOOLS > COPY FROM DISK. It's a very slow process limited by the speed of floppy operation.

Hi,

Thanks for the detail. I have spent a lot of this week playing the keyboard and exploring creating custom sounds and rhythms.

I first owned a KN6500 about 12 years ago and I never really understood how deep it could go. After years of owning various other keyboards, has made me realise the capability of the sound editing and rhythm creation on the KN keyboards. I’m still blown away how far ahead of the times technics were!

I have also made a few blunders with loading in some of the styles off the SD card that was already in my KN7000 by including the panel memory settings to be loaded in... it took me a while to get my head around why my panel memory’s kept getting wiped!!

And by the way - I have a USB SD card reader so I will try a few things out with it in the next few days.

I have also ordered a cheap USB Floppy drive for the purpose of loading in custom styles - so if this works out easier than the SD card then I’ll decide to stick with that.

I have encountered another problem just last night... I have 4 custom sounds stored in the sound memory as well as a custom drum kit..

All of a sudden they all disappeared and reset back to factory...
everything else remained the same (all my panel memory’s, all my custom styles were stil all there)... so it has me very confused.

I have used some of the custom sounds and user drum kit in some of my custom styles. When I copy them to the user banks for editing in the composer, they still bring over the custom sounds and user drum kits... and then when I go back out of the composer, the user drum Kit and custom sounds are appearing back in the memory bank again...

Not sure if this is a bug or is my KN7000 playing up?? My first thoughts were the internal backup is done for but the fact that I am not losing my panel memory and custom styles tells me there’s something funny going on...

Anyone experienced this issue??

Nick - the use of the word 'custom' in relation to Technics keyboards can be confusing to me and others because the Technics Company decided years ago in their wisdom to produce a very limited number of extra style files and create a specific space for them in the keyboard called the 'Custom' rhythm group - see rhythm group buttons one in from the right in the lower set.
I rather suspect you are using the word 'custom' in its general sense but you would need to confirm this before we can go any further, please...

Hi Roger,

Apologies! When I say “custom” i am referring to something that i have made or someone else has made.. so basically a user sound or a user style...

I hope this helps?
Thanks

Ok - no worries - just needed to check.
Taking it step by step...
You find a Technics style file set for a particular song or rhythm on the computer. You download it to a floppy disk and take that floppy disk over to your KN7000 and load it up on the screen. At this moment it's in your KN7000 and is being temporarily stored in the rhythm group area/button called 'Memory'. You can go ahead and play music with it working through variations 1 to 4.
If you switch off it will dissappear immediately, and you're left with a basic default rhythm/style.
If you touch anyone of the panel memory buttons you will lose it and be left with whatever was default set up on that panel memory.
So.....
Whilst you have got it, save it to panel memories - for example Var1 to Panel memory A1; Var2 to Panel memory A2 etc. Then save all that to an SD Card giving it a recognisable name in the process.
Next time say 3 hours later you want to play it again. Switch on your keyboard and load it back up from the SD Card, and away you go.
Good luck...